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Computer Science in K-12

An A to Z Handbook on
teaching programming
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Introduction Video

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions - From Sujatha Gunja

This week’s reading explored the role of unplugged activities to support the teaching of computer science / Digital Technologies. 

  1. What do you consider to be the influencing factors in instructional design, when deciding the balance between online vs unplugged activities?
  2. With reference to one key concept and band level from the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies, identified unplugged activities that could be used to teach some of the relevant content descriptions.
Discussion Questions - From Dr. Christine Liebe (CSTeach Course, Colorado School of Mines)
  • Which types of learners might enjoy unplugged activities most? Least? (Consider learner backgrounds, prior preparation, cultural factors).

  • How might you differentiate unplugged activities to be most engaging for elementary/middle/high school students?

  • What types of accommodations might be necessary for students with physical or learning challenges with unplugged activities?

  • What types of real world investigation could be paired with unplugged activities?

Twitter Chats
  1. How do you support student discovery and exploration so that students can build understanding? How have you done this in a virtual teaching environment (as during the Covid pandemic)?
  2.  In ch 7, the authors provide a variety of examples of unplugged activities. What are your favorite unplugged activities and what concepts do they help your students to grasp? Please share links and adaptations for in-person as well as virtual learning! 
  3. In ch 7, the authors stress that it is important to “make explicit bridges between the unplugged contexts and the technical programming contexts.” How do you explicitly help students to link unplugged activities back to abstract concepts and technical language? 
  4. “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world.” What fictional books and stories are you using in your CS instruction to connect to programming concepts, and for which grades?

Additional Materials

From Matthew Wimpenny-Smith: Concrete examples of the Semantic Wave pedagogy in action
INFACT unplugged, digital, and programming activities suite

Drs. Shuchi Grover, Maya Israel, and David Weintrop collaborated as Co-PIs with the Edge @ TERC group to design Including Neurodiversity in Foundational and Applied Computational Thinking (INFACT).
INFACT engages students in grades 3–8 in problem solving through computational thinking (CT). INFACT involves a variety of on- and off-line CT learning and teaching materials, including games (e.g., Zoombinis), coding, robotics, and hands-on unplugged activities. INFACT is specially designed for inclusive classrooms, integrating supports for executive function within the CT activities. Recent US Department of Education (USEd) funded research showed students who use INFACT show  more improvement on CT assessments than those using other CT programs. This outcome was particularly dramatic for students who face challenges with executive function.

Graphical abstract of INFACT. "Computational thinking teaching and learning materials designed for inclusion show promise to reveal problem solving strengths of neurodivergent learners."
Articles and presentations on Semantic Waves as a pedagogy for introductory programming
  1. The Crazy Characters lesson plan from Barefoot Computing, the research paper that profiles it, a Hello World Article that is teacher facing to describe this and a video from Jane Waite about it.
  2. Slides from Jane Waite’s CSTA workshop on Semantic Waves.
  3. Paul Curzon’s aggregated resources on Semantic Waves for introductory computing.
    • Video of Paul Curson’s Raspberry Pi foundation presentation on Semantic Waves